Running a festival is not necessarily a dance on roses, although the corona pandemic has let go. The air strike has created a lot of headaches and sweaty festival directors around the country, but the Kokelv Live festival has had to deal with much more than planes and artists who do not come. – Everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong, says Camilla Svendsen. She is one of the zealots who makes sure that Kokelv – with around 100 permanent residents – has its own festival. A festival that this year is expected to double the population of the small village. And then things have to be taken care of, but it has not been an easy affair. The problems have come on the assembly line for the small festival, and many of them just before the start of the festival. Festival director Camilla Svendsen says that everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong. Photo: Private Popcorn machine up in flames Here the expression “An accident rarely comes alone” comes into its own. We can start with the festival tent. The big gathering point during the festival, and not least – the place where the concerts will take place. The tent is in fact stored in a building about 360 kilometers away. And no, distance is not the issue. The drama started five days before Kokelv Live started. Then it started to burn in the building where the tent was located, and the fire was so serious that the industrial building was completely damaged. And as if that were not enough; The slush and popcorn machine – which was supposed to be the highlight for the children during the family concert – was also lost in the flames. The festival director says that many volunteers have contributed to making the festival in Kokelv. Photo: Private Punctures and starting trouble Inside the tent that burned up, a bar was to be set up. But when the festival gang went out to get materials for this bar, the car punctured. – No problem, thought Steffen Ditløvsen, as one of the organizers. He could only take his own car and fix the case. Then a new strange problem arose: When he got in the car, he noticed that the ignition button gave way a little. He pressed again. Then the ignition button disappeared. Far into the dashboard itself! Ditløvsen, who was already in a kind of “fire-fighting mode”, still knew the advice. – The first thing I thought was: I’ll call father – in – law. Ditløvsen says that the father-in-law fixed the button in pure reodor rim style. – Now the ignition button hangs in a wire above the turn signal bar. Steffen Ditløvsen is one of the organizers behind the festival Kokelv Live in Finnmark. Here he is with bar manager Lene Mari Jensen. Photo: Private Pilot strike and lightning Yes, and then there was the pilot strike, then. It is of course an advantage with artists and music once you have set up a festival. The program includes Kristian Kristensen, Isák and Chris Holsten. After the pilot strike broke out, Kokelv Live first had ice in their stomachs: they hoped that the strike would be called off, so that the artists could get to Finnmark with their original tickets. But as the start of the festival approached, and the strike continued, they had to rush around and book new tickets and rent cars. Most things seemed to work out, and the festival gang thought they could shrug their shoulders. – We thought so, until Wednesday night, when we were to sit down and book the last plane tickets and rental car, but suddenly the mobile network disappeared, says Camilla Svendsen. Coincidences led to lightning striking just at this time, and the whole village was left without a mobile network. – We just rolled our eyes, and thought that this was not unexpected. Solutions in sight! The festival management has thus had to turn around several times to keep Kokelv Live on its feet. After the fire, they agreed to rent a tent from a Midnattsrocken festival. The festival director there, Stian Labahå, says that it is quite common that the festivals do not go completely smoothly in the preparations, but that this year’s challenges have been particularly great. – It’s almost like we’re starting to miss the corona, Labahå sighs. In the week before the festival, the organizers handled both punctured tires and starting trouble. After a lot of work to rebook tickets for the festival’s artists, fortunately only one artist did not make it to the festival on time. Although Chris Holsten had managed to get to Kokelv, it was worse with the whole band. – The problem is that he has a fairly large band with him, and half will play in another gig on Friday, says festival director Camilla Svendsen. In comparison, Åge Aleksandersen and Sambandet spent NOK 200,000 on rebooking their tickets when they went to Finnmark last weekend. And the bar, you know, the one that Steffen Ditløvsen picked up with a car with a loose ignition button – it is built and ready. – Now the festival starts, so now it can probably not go wrong anymore, laughs Camilla Svendsen.
ttn-69
Lightning strike, air strike and fire could not stop the festival, Kokelv Live goes as planned this weekend – news Troms and Finnmark
